Found another missing link in the puzzle

Wow, can't believe I've found more missing links in the Batton chain.......

This time I found the link to Helen (Ellen) Batton - the oldest sibling of George Batton and Eliza Massey.

Here's how it happened:

I recently joined Ancestry.com website and found that there some public family trees which shared the common theme of George Batton and Eliza Massey.

It turns out one of the trees belongs to Kenneth and Brenda Haynes. Brenda is the daughter of Maureen Toner / grand-daughter of Cissy Batton / cousin of some of you on my blog........ We are currently exchanging more information.

The other tree I had checked belonged to Brian Long who lives in Canada.

This is a difficult one to explain so I need to do it in pictures (below).

Brian is the great great great grandson of Andrew Batton & Lilias McGregor descending from Elizabeth Batton & Henry Connell via their daughter Lily Connell/Alexander Young on his maternal line.

and at the same time is :

the great great grandson of Ellen Batton & James Gordon (the oldest child of George Batton & Eliza Massey) descending from their daughter Ellen Gordon & Henry Connell (not the same Henry but cousins) via their daughter Betty Connell/Harold Long on his paternal line.

Brian's mum came from Darvel and moved to Canada - his mum is Lilian Mair - who still has siblings in Darvel area (Brothers Jimmy, Sandy and sister Rebecca).

I find this extraordinary and I'm delighted as this means I've found another link back to the 6 Batton siblings.

Ellen Batton - connection Brian Long

John Batton - connection Andrea Batcho (New York) but there must be many more since John & Jessie had a large family. They moved to Florida so my quest will now begin in Florida.

Samuel Batton (Paton) - connection Dick & Barbie von Briesen, Pat Jurey & Susan Lui

Andrew Batton - connections too numerous as this is where we mostly originate from - including Brian, myself, Bill, Richard, John, Brenda, Doreen....

Robert Batton - no children as far as we know off..... born 14 March 1859 (which is my oldest daughters birthday)

George Batton (Paton) - connection Elizabeth Walsh Australia

Not bad for over 10 years of detective work and my thanks to many of you for helping along the way. I just need to update my Batton booklets yet again.

Now the next question - when are you all planning the Batton family reunion........

John Batton (WW1 Seamen's Record)

I also found the Seamen's record for John Batton for his WW1 service.
It shows which vessels he was on from August 1917 to February 1921.
John was the son of Andrew Batton & Lilias McGregor Batton.
He was the Uncle of my Grandfather George.
Doreen & Ian - he was the brother of your dad Robert Batton.
Pat & Barbie - he was the cousin of your grandfather George Paton and nephew of your great grandfather Samuel Paton (Batton).

John and his wife Sadie moved to New York in 1929. It shows his height and colour of hair and eyes. Interesting that he didn't have the Batton blue eyes.....

Exciting find... my grandfather George Batton

I was searching the National Archives online today and put in a search for the name Batton in the military section. Low and behold up came a list of names including George Batton, Sapper and the Royal Engineers 1943.

I downloaded the image and it contained the Military medal commendation made to my Grandfather during WW2.

Look at the signature on the document - B.L. Montgomery. This commendation was signed by General Montgomery. I don't know a lot about WW2 but I think my Papa might have been at El Alamein. Now that I have more information including his army service number and the action for which commended. I'm a very proud grand-daughter.

The London Gazette - 11th March 1943. This is the edition which included the notice of George Batton being awarded the military medal.

At the top of Column 2 you will see his name is the 3rd down. George Batton, Darvel Ayrshire.

The internet never fails to amaze me.

Enjoy!

New photos - George Paton (son of George Batton and Eliza Massey) and brother of Andrew, Samuel, John, Robert and Ellen

Thanks to Elizabeth Walsh for sending me some photos of her grandmother Elizabeth and her mother Mary and her great grandfather George Paton (Batton).

George was youngest sibling of George Batton and Eliza Massey and he lived in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire until his death at the age of 89 in 1950.

George was married to (1) Margaret Eadie and (2) Janet Fyfe.

Below - George Paton and on left with George is George's daughter Elizabeth Russell

Family picnic taken circa 1934 - photo of James and Elizabeth Russell, youngest daughter of George Paton and his wife Janet Fyfe.

Also in photo is Elizabeth (Paton) and James Russell with their daughter Mary Danks Russell and baby George Paton Russell....

More photos of George Paton (Batton)

George Paton (Batton) with his grand-daughter Mary in his arms.

Another Batton / Paton connection

Wonderful news. I received an email from Elizabeth Walsh who leaves near Melbourne, Australia.

Elizabeth read a post I had made some time ago on the LHFS website asking for anyone who knew George Paton/Janet Fyfe.

It turns out that Elizabeth is the great grand-daughter of George Paton and Janet Fyfe.

Missing from my family history search was the youngest daughter of George and Janet - Elizabeth Paton was born in 1905 in Kirkhill, Cambuslang. Elizabeth died in 1985.

Photo is Janet Fyfe with Elizabeth. Taken around 1912.

Elizabeth Paton (died 1985) married James Russell (died 1993) and they had 2 children :

George Paton Russell

Mary Danks Russell (died 1997)

Elizabeth and James moved to Australia in 1959 - previously living at 10 Cadoc Street, Cambuslang. Photo was taken in 1953 at the time of the Queen's Coronation.

Mary married John Luck Edmond in April 1961. (John died 1998) and they had 3 children :

Elizabeth born 1953, Lynne born March 1958 and John born October 1961 (died 2004).

Elizabeth married David Walsh and they have 2 children Jenni and Simon.

Elizabeth and David below....

Saintfield, County Down

Above is the photo of Saintfield taken in 1910 and the description on the website I took the extract and photo from reads :

The building on the left at the corner is Minnis Bros. Ltd. Beside it is Alexander Batton's grocer's shop.

The photo below was taken by my daughter Gillian during her trip to Belfast to visit her boyfriend Paul. She arrived home today and she has been there for the past 2 weeks. Whilst she was there she phoned me to say she was passing through Saintfield and she had stopped to take photos of the 1st Saintfield Presbyterian Church for me, as she knew this was the connection to the Battons I had been researching. Her boyfriend lives in the small town of Shrigley which is only about 10 miles from Saintfield.

I was just downloading all the photos from her trip onto my computer as she had visited the Falls Road and Shankhill areas and I wanted to look at the photos.

Imagine my shock when I came across the photos above!!!

It is taken almost in the same spot as the photo I had seen on the Saintfield website.

I asked her why she had taken this photo and she said it was for a joke as she is always spotting yellow cars and she did it to annoy her boyfriend! She said "I've just taken a photo of a yellow car"...

We were told that there is no connection between Alexander Batton who had the shop in Saintfield in 1910 and our Batton ancestors. Ian and Doreen Paterson received a letter from Gladys Batton, grand-daughter of Alexander and she insists there was no connection.

I was further surprised when I zoomed into Gillian's photo to see what the old Batton shop is now! And almost fell off my chair when I saw that it was Massey's of Saintfield (butchers shop).

Since our ancestor George Batton who died in 1872 in Galston, Ayrshire and we know lived in this same town in 1863.... he was the widower of Eliza Massey. The Massey and Batton connection again in a shop!

I received an email some time ago from Massey's of Saintfield giving me the contact number for a gentleman named Sidney Massey who had once been the owner of the butchers shop. I need to try and find it and try to find out how long the Massey family had owned the shop. Did it go from Batton to Massey - and were they related to us!

Batton children 1900's

I have been doing some more research on our ancestors George Batton and Maggie McCurdie and their children. I read somewhere that they had 13 children but I only knew of 8 children.
So my quest yesterday was to try to identify the other 5 children and try to find out a bit more of what happened to them. I left myself thoroughly depressed.

It paints quite a sad picture of the times that George and Maggie must have been living in. Times must have been extremely tough for them, and even more so for Maggie when she lost her husband in 1929. Her youngest daughter was only 10 years old (May) and her oldest child only 25 (Lily). It is credit to Maggie and her remaining children that she lived to the ripe old age of 83 years and outlived her husband George by 30 years.

If anyone reading this can fill in the blanks for their own parents, siblings please drop me a note. My focus now is on completing Maggie and George's family history.

5 of their children died in infancy - Isabella, Robert, Agnes and twin girls Maggie and Jeanie.

The 13 children were born in the following years :

1901 - Isabella Farrell Batton (died 30th December 1901 aged 5 months). Cause of death bronchitis syncope.

1903 - Lily McGregor Batton - born 5th October 1903 and died aged 95 years (on 19/1/1999). Lily married John Paton on 30th October 1925. John died in 1964 aged 62 years.

1904 - Isabella Farrell Batton (Auntie Bella) - born 10th October 1904 and named after her baby sister who died 3 years earlier. Bella married Alexander Blackwood in 1940 in Muirkirk. Had daughters Margaret and Barbara. They lived in Canada.

1906 - Andrew Batton was born on 5th January 1906 and married Maggie McGhee on 13th February 1926. I know they had a son Andrew but I am not aware if they had other children.

1907 - Robert McCurdie Batton - born around May 1907 and died aged 9 months old on 8th February 1908.

1909 - Elizabeth (Aunt Cissy) Batton was born on 7th February 1909 at Kerse Row, Rankinston. She married John Tonner on 28th April 1928 at St Pauls Chapel, Galston. Cissy lived unti 1997. She had sons George and Pat and daughters Elizabeth (Betty), Margaret and Ellen. I don't know if there were other children.

1910 - Agnes McCurdie Batton was born around August 1910 and died on 10th December aged 4 months old. Cause of death was marasmus. Marasmus is a form of emaciation and wasting in an infant due to protein-energy malnutrition.

1912 - Twins Maggie Batton and Jeanie White Paterson Batton were born around August 1912 - Maggie died first on 28th November 1912. Cause of death at 3 months old was infantile convulsion. Her sister Jeanie died on 21st December 1912 aged 4 months old - cause of death was marasmus 2 months and infantile convulsions 1 day.

1913 - Maggie McCurdie Batton was born in 1913. She was named after her baby sister who had died the previous year. Maggie married William Strachan and they had 3 children - Willian, Alan and Margaret.

1915 - Nellie Batton was born in 1915 in Rankinston, Ayrshire. Helen married John Mair on 29th July 1932. Nellie and John had a son George Mair who married Jean. George and Jean had 2 sons John and Bob. I don't know if Nellie and John had other children.

1916 - George Batton (my grandfather) was born on 20th December 1916. He married Jean Docherty King in mid 1930's. Jean died of TB on 15th January 1952. They had 5 children - Frank, George, Margaret, Andrew and Jean Batton. George remarried, Maggie Dykes and they had one son, John Robert Batton. George died on 19th May 1976 of a heart attack.

1919 - Mary McCurdie Batton (Auntie May) was born on 5th May 1919 at Douglas West. May married Richard Gladwell on 25th May 1944. They had 3 children - Richard, Margaret and Linda. May died on 21st November 1994 and Dick died 21st June 1984.

Christmas 2009

My daughters Courtney age 17, Gillian age 20 and Ashleigh 21 - Christmas Day 2009


Courtney, me and Ashleigh - Christmas Day 2009

Hope everyone had a lovely time at Christmas and all the best for 2010.